The bowstring on an archery bow is under a great deal of tension when the bow is in the braced condition. The bowstring carries at least a portion of the load required to bring the bow limbs to the brace position. In the case of the compound bow the bowstring carries the greatest portion of the load imposed between the bows limb tips in the brace condition with the secondary cables carrying the remainder. On recurve bows the bowstring is subjected to the entire load imposed between the bows limb tips. As such when the bowstring is displaced at or near its center and released it vibrates like a string on a musical instrument sending vibrations into the strings attachment points as well as creating noise by displacing the air around it.
A number of innovations have been directed at reducing the noise associated with these residual string vibrations associated with shooting a bow. In some cases attachments have been placed on the bowstring at various locations in an attempt to lessen or dampen these vibrations and the associated noise level. Some of these items with such names as Bear Puffs, Spider legs and String Leaches are well known to those in the sport as accessories that can be attached to the bowstring to reduce string noise.
Another means to reduce bow string vibration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,125 titled “BOWSTRING POSITIONING DEVICE”. The '125 patent shows an arm which extends rearwardly from the bow handle having a resilient member mounted on the extended end which engages the bowstring in the bows braced position. Along these same lines U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,267 titled “COMPOUND BOW” shows the use of two similar devices extending reward from the bow handle and intercepting the bowstring. While these devices were rather efficient at damping the bow strings vibrations that would otherwise been transmitted into the bow handle, the resiliency of the bumpers themselves did little to reduce the string noise and in most cases amplified rather than reduced the string noise. U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,269 titled “BOWSTRING SOUND DAMPENER” operates similar to the previously mentioned patents but provides a better means of arresting the bowstring so as to reduce string noise. All three patents '125, '267 and '269 are forms of string bumpers that engage the bowstring near the bowstrings center point in an area where the bowstring is traveling the fastest during arrow launch and all three string bumpers stop the forward progress of the bowstring at the brace position making separation of the arrow from the bowstring abrupt and premature. While the string bumpers of the '125 and '269 patents tend to reduce the shock and vibrations felt at the bow hand when shooting they did very little to reduce string noise and in most cases aggravated that problem. The initial impact point of the bowstring on these bow handle mounted bumpers tends to be laterally inconsistent and results in effecting shooting accuracy adversely.